<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>the sixth love language by shrack</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826429">the sixth love language</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrack/pseuds/shrack'>shrack</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Criminal Minds (US TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I just love my two old dads, I literally cannot believe I wrote and published this in 2020, Love Languages, M/M, theyve been together for a while in this, this fits wherever you want in canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:13:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,009</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826429</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrack/pseuds/shrack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>some thoughts david rossi has during the quiet moments on the jet.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aaron Hotchner/David Rossi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>160</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the sixth love language</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>If Dave weren’t a profiler, he thinks he would miss out on Aaron’s love language.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s never been a secret that Dave shows his affection through gifts. Acts of service, too, if he were to be honest with himself—he has money, and he likes to spend it on the people who matter to him the most, but there is no better feeling than offering to cook dinner with the BAU or offering to help with some menial task that Aaron still has looming over him in the wee hours of the morning.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’s not sure why he’s thinking about this now, nor why he thinks of anything but the case in the quiet hours on the jet, between the briefing and the plane’s landing. Maybe the others have noticed that his mind wanders, maybe not. Instinctually, Dave casts a glance over at Aaron, who is as he ever is, hunched over paperwork for the upcoming case, coffee long since cold next to him, practically untouched.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At first, Dave thought of him as a quality time type of guy. This isn’t necessarily untrue, but it’s rarely something Aaron will seek out—the man is happy to exist quietly in the same space as others, but rarely has he come into Dave’s office just to sit and do simultaneous, unrelated work. (That said, it’s one of Dave’s favorite things to do on slower days.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Besides, the time he gives to Jack easily fits in that category. At home, he gives one-hundred percent to being home. There he is Jack’s father, lovingly shouting at his soccer games, picking Jack up and spinning him around whenever the kid scores a goal and runs over to celebrate. Dave watches as Aaron give all of himself to every cause that he’s passionate about, and it brings him such joy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But that...doesn’t feel right either. Dave pushes himself out of the seat and grabs Aaron’s coffee on the way to the drinks, pouring both of them new cups. Maybe his love language lies in routine, he thinks, as he walks down the aisle and places the cup back in its spot. Aaron, without looking up from his papers, picks it up and takes a sip, unsurprised that his coffee is now hot. Dave smiles into his coffee cup as he retakes his seat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Broader yet, it’s in the little things. Routines, and when Aaron completes them. After a long day of work, Dave knocks gently on his door, twice with his first two knuckles, to snap him out of his reverie. Aaron usually has something to wrap up before they go (Dave’s timing isn’t perfect, it can’t be), but the tension melts from his shoulders as Dave waits and watches. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The way he speaks, and only to Dave. The thrill Dave gets when Aaron tells the agents where to go when they land, but the only first name is Dave’s. (He brought that up once, shortly after their relationship began, and Aaron softly admitted that he didn’t notice he was doing it. He never stopped.) The ease with which Aaron will confess his emotions, not seeking for someone to tell him that it’ll be okay, but for someone to listen and make sure he doesn’t compartmentalize. Even better, those words uttered in the silence of the night, close against Dave’s skin, for him and only him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In their line of work, it’s hard to trust someone with your life. That’s not to say that they don’t trust the rest of the team, they both do, but if Dave had to put words to the way Aaron shows his love, it’s in the ways he trusts.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Larger things, like handing work to a colleague or leading a briefing. Letting Dave assist Jack’s soccer team. Spare keys, alarm codes, passwords, that lead into moving in together. (Dave remembers the day he unlocked Aaron’s phone in front of the rest of the team fondly, specifically the range of emotions on the team’s faces, from amusement to horror. Perhaps the best moment was when Aaron didn’t react at all.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Smaller things, exclusive ones. Silent agreements, Aaron’s eyes flicking between Dave’s own, soft, private smiles when no one else is looking. A hand on the small of Dave’s back to slide by. Letting Dave sneak kisses in their offices, or in private parts of the plane. Letting Dave do </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything, </span>
  </em>
  <span>really. Quips so deadpan they make Dave’s sides hurt from laughing. Letting someone else undress him, see his body.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dave,” Aaron says, effectively snapping him out of it, beckoning him over with a nod of his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave goes, as he always does. He slips into the seat across from him, and Aaron adjusts his feet to bracket either side of one of Dave’s, as he always does. Dave bites back a smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s going on?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fresh eyes,” he says, sliding the folder across the little desk as he sits back in his seat. Dave looks up, clocks the light smudge on the outside of Aaron’s left hand that he always gets from writing, no matter how hard he tries not to, and quirks an eyebrow. Aaron just shrugs a shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Trust, that has to be it. Aaron doesn’t try to step in when Dave changes something on a form, like he would with another agent. In fact, when Dave finishes up, Aaron’s dozing off, head tipped toward the window. Dave busies himself with writing the important details of the case in his notebook.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ten minutes before they land, Dave kicks Aaron’s ankle gently. The man stirs, blinks a few times at the window, before turning to Dave with a sheepish smile. Dave doesn’t say that Aaron could’ve just asked to take a nap, because he knows the man never would. There are some things better left unsaid, but the smirk on Dave’s face is answered by an eyeroll that he’s become more than acquainted with.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Time to put on the ol’ battle rattle,” Dave mutters, and Aaron breathes a laugh.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I told you to stop calling it that.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>